Pro-Russian separatists have consolidated their power in Ukraine after nationalizing all the properties under Ukraine's state ownership and enhancing diplomatic ties with its neighbors. All state properties belonging to the Kiev government in the Donetsk region have now fallen under the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)'s jurisdiction."Now we are considering the following as one of the options," DPR parliament speaker Denis Pushilini said. "All enterprises that are and were Ukrainian property will now be put under DPR control. Enterprises belonging or previously owned by oligarchs who refuse to co-operate with the DPR and to pay their taxes here, who continue paying them to Ukraine, will be nationalized. [If] enterprises who clearly stated that the DPR is unacceptable to them, do not start co-operating closely with the DPR, then we have no other choice."As part of the nationalizing project, the name of the Ukrainian History Department, the Local and Regional History Department, was changed to Donetsk National University. "The Ukrainian history course has been minimized and has become part of a broader course of world history," said Sergei Baryshnikov, who stayed behind in Donetsk to head up the rebel-controlled university, AP reported. "This is right. It is appropriate and meets our political goals and ideological plans and intentions."Donetsk National University student Anya Liutsoyeva said, "The Ukrainian history course now has been substituted with an ethnic history of the Donbass, the collective name of Ukraine's easternmost regions."Since the declaration of independence of the breakaway region, Moscow-backed separatist groups have been trying to build an active government from scratch. The pro-Russian rebel groups rejected a law granting self-rule under the Special Status Law signed by Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko for the rebel-held region of Donetsk and Luhansk in September, as part of a peace deal under the Minsk Protocol of Sept. 5 and the Minsk Memorandum of Sept. 19 in a bid to end the months-long separatist fighting.With Moscow's explicit support, pro-Russian separatists, seeking a regional leadership that is politically close to Russia, held a separatist election on Dec. 2 that the Kiev government and the West refused to recognize. The separatists declared their autonomy in May after holding an independence referendum, which was not recognized by the Kiev government and the West.Apart from the rebels' project of nationalization in the Donbass region, civilians continue to suffer from worsening humanitarian conditions due to the ongoing violent clashes. The clashes between Ukrainian security forces and pro-Russian separatists have turned the east of the country into a battle zone where many Ukrainians have been forced to flee the war to other parts of the country or to cross into neighboring Russia. Since the conflict erupted, more than 15,000 people have reportedly been killed, according to U.N. figures.